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The usual suppliers that include the major sector players and host of
Japanese firms dominated Intel’s Preferred Quality Supplier (PQS) award
system in 2011. However, the word ‘velocity’ has become the new
measuring stick, with Nikon winning an ‘Achievement’ category award for
‘velocity.’ In total 19 companies received Intel’s PQS honour in 2011
and 2 companies as Achievement winners. In the Supplier Continuous Quality Improvement (SCQI) award category system, Intel acknowledged 9 suppliers in 2011.
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Toshiba has announced it will build a new production facility to relocate its semiconductor operations and redress the problems caused by the 2011 floods and to meet future growth demands. The plant, which will be operated by subsidiary Toshiba Semiconductor Thailand Ltd (TST), will be 135,000 square metres and be due for completion in the spring of 2013, production will begin in the subsequent months.

The European Photonics Industry Consortium (EPIC) has announced that Carlos Lee will become its new director general with immediate effect. The announcement, made at the association’s recent annual general meeting, will see Lee replace Thomas Pearsall, who has been with the organization since its formulation in 2003.

Sematech has announced that the centrotherm photovoltaics AG
subsidiary, centrotherm thermal solutions, will join its Front End Program
(FEP) to develop low-temperature processing techniques for use in
high-performance logic and advanced memory applications such as metal oxide
RRAM devices.

There will be no further quarterly conference calls from VSEA, and that
includes for the benefit of myself and anyone else that is interested in
the ion implant space - to compare and contrast the niche but
fascinating area of this semiconductor technology area.
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It’s that time of year again, when bags are packed and the semiconductor
suppliers head-off to San Francisco for SEMICON West. Though not
attending myself this year, due to an inconsiderate eldest daughter
being in a stage show in London next week, I did find out that I have
been sacked from a job I had undertaken for a few years that is
organised by SEMI in conjunction with SEMICON West.
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Fujitsu’s board of directors has approved the following appointments, resignations and promotions effective from April 1, 2012. The announcement includes the appointment of Kazuhiro Igarashi and Yoshihiko Hanada as the company’s two new corporate senior VPs. All 44 executives, other than those mentioned below will remain in their current posts.

STMicroelectronics CFO, Carlo Ferro is to head-up operations at
struggling ST-Ericsson as chief operating officer of the company. Mario
Arlati, ST’s chief accounting officer will take on the CFO role at
STMicroelectronics.
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Peter Smith has been brought on as CEO during a reshuffle at Voltaix. He
is replacing Mark Fine who served as interim CEO since January 2010. He
will have responsibility for a number of the company's strategic
initiatives and will oversee relationships with distributor partners
world-wide. Fine is taking up the post of president, in place of John de
Neufville, who will continue as the company's chief scientist,
overseeing chemical research and end-use applications development.
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Product Outline: Brion Technologies, a division of ASML, has launched
the Tachyon Flexible Mask Optimization (Tachyon FMO), part of ASML’s
Holistic Lithography portfolio. Tachyon FMO is claimed to enable the
seamless use of multiple Optical Proximity Correction (OPC) techniques
in a single mask tapeout, permitting the use of advanced and
computationally intensive OPC in key local areas where they provide
maximum benefit.
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Product Briefing Outline: Applied Materials has introduced its
new ‘Applied Centura Tetra’ EUV Advanced Reticle Etch system. The new
systems is claimed to overcome a major hurdle to the adoption of EUV
lithography by solving the critical and unmet challenge of etching EUVL
photomasks with nanometer-level accuracy and world-class defect
performance to enable the fabrication of multiple new generations of
high-performance semiconductor chips at the 16nm node and below.
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After a two-year term at solar equipment supplier Spire, Dr. Avishai
Kepten has returned to the semiconductor equipment sector as Vice
President and General Manager of Rudolph Technologies, Metrology
Business Unit. Dr. Kepten had previously spent six years at Novellus
Systems, as Director of Technology and Director of New Product
Development of the Electrofill Business Unit.
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Arizona State University's (ASU) developed training program for professionals has announced details for the 2009 ‘Facility Manager's Development Program' (FMDP), due to start in September this year.
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Further to its approximately 14% cut in staff numbers in October 2008 – only seven months ago, Axcelis Technologies, Inc. has again announced that it is letting staff go in a further attempt at cutting operating costs to stay competitive. Approximately 235 staff, or 20% of its global workforce will be axed from the company’s books, yielding an estimated $25 million in savings per annum.
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ABSTRACT - This paper presents a calculation model and conclusions with focus on the comparison of low-throughput and high-throughput lithography clusters via an analysis of the lithography Cost of Ownership (COO) and applied data of the Overall Equipment Efficiency (OEE) and Overall Factory Efficiency (OFE).